what can be done

Developing countries need to generate their own computer usage patterns and internal markets. This way their market will expand and vendors (and consultants and publishers and on-line forums) will respect them and give them some attention.

For example, take my country - India. Lot of MS-office and software development but very little free market. How to make a difference.

A group of scientists (along with a few successsfull enterprenuers who made it in USA) are trying a thing called Simputer. (simple computer). It's a hand held that runs on Linux (Free) and comes with its own graffiti like recognition software for 4 Indian languages AND BEST OFF ALL comes with a smart card built in. So many people, each with their own smart card can use one hand held. SIMPUTER was featured in TIME MAGAZINE as a gadget of the future.

The apps : mail, weather, crops, local markets, internet, talk to your relative in another town ...

By the way, I read somewhere that China has got at least adozen pieces of software for hand helds WRITTEN IN CHINESE.

So what o we do. Go out and make customised packages fit for our economies of scale.

It's probably possible.

End of mail.